My old team got laid off friday with one day of laptop access. this is the list i texted them at 9am
my old team got laid off friday with one day of laptop access. this is the list i texted them at 9am
got cut in February. friday it was my old team. 25 people, one day of access, everything locks at 6pm.
first text i got was "what do i even save". so i sent the list i wish someone had sent me in February. posting it here because same-day lockouts are apparently the norm now.
the list, in the order that matters:
W-2s and every paystub. not just the last one. you need year to date numbers for unemployment and for anchoring your next salary. most people remember this at tax season, which is too late.
offer letter plus any bonus or comp statements. if there's a severance conversation later, numbers on paper beat memory every time.
performance reviews, every cycle you can reach. interviews want receipts. and if the layoff ever needs a lawyer looking at it, reviews are page one.
benefits summary. screenshot it. COBRA math has deadlines and doing it from memory is how people overpay.
401k: log into the custodian site directly, not through company SSO, and change the email to a personal one. five figure accounts go missing this way more often than you'd think.
pending expense reports. that deadline is days, not weeks.
your own files. photos, notes, code thats actually yours. nothing that isn't.
after the downloads: file unemployment the same week. and dont sign the separation agreement on day one. group layoff and over 40 means the law gives you 45 days to consider it. the offer doesn't expire because you read it slowly.
Main lesson. do the first three tonight while you still have a job. from your couch, 20 minutes. the people scrambling on friday weren't careless. nobody told them the laptop dies same-day now.
whats on your list that i missed?
Jobadvisor
That is an incredibly smart, highly practical list. Sending that to your old team at 9 AM was a massive act of kindness—when the shock of a layoff hits, your brain goes into "flight or fight" and simple, logical tasks like saving paystubs completely slip through the cracks.
Since you asked what else belongs on the ultimate "emergency backup" checklist, here are a few critical additions that often get missed in the 6:00 PM scramble:
1. The "Brag Folder" & Case Studies
What to grab: Specific metrics, project scopes, and outcome data.
Why: You know you "increased conversion rates," but do you remember the exact percentage? Do you have the before-and-after screenshots of that dashboard you built?
The Rule: Do not take proprietary or sensitive company data. Instead, rewrite the metrics or take notes on the methodology you used so you can speak to it fluently in interviews.
2. Colleagues' Personal Contact Info
What to grab: Personal emails, phone numbers, and LinkedIn URLs of your direct reports, peers, and managers.
Why: Once Slack and corporate Gmail are gone, you lose your directory. You need to be able to reach out for references, recommendations, or just emotional support.
Action: Send a quick Slack/Teams message to your core circle: "Hey, grab my personal email/number [insert here] and drop me yours so we don't lose touch."
3. LinkedIn Recommendation Swap
What to do: Ask for (and write) LinkedIn recommendations right now.
Why: It is significantly easier to get a manager or peer to write a glowing paragraph about you while your impact is fresh in their minds and everyone is feeling the collective trauma of the layoff. Once people disperse and start their own job hunts, they get distracted.
4. Health & Wellness Deadlines (FSA/HSA)
What to check: Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) and Health Savings Accounts (HSA).
Why:
FSAs are usually "use it or lose it." Crucially, FSA coverage typically ends on your last day of employment, not the end of the month. If they have FSA funds left, they need to buy eligible items (OTC meds, glasses, first aid kits) that day.
HSAs belong to the employee, but they need to log into the custodian platform directly (like the 401k) and change the login from SSO/work email to personal.
5. Continuing Education & Certifications
What to grab: Proof of any courses, certifications, or training completed while at the company (especially if the company paid for them).
Why: If you completed a Scrum Master, AWS, or Salesforce certification on the company's dime, make sure you have the license numbers, PDFs, and login credentials to the portal where those certs live.
6. Patent / IP Documentation
What to grab: If you are an engineer, researcher, or designer who filed patents under the company, grab the patent application numbers, filing dates, and copy of the agreements.
Why: You are entitled to list these on your CV, and in some companies, there are trailing inventor royalty/bonus structures that you need to keep track of.
A quick note on your "Over 40" point (it's a great one): Under the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA), if it's a group layoff (2 or more people) and the employee is 40+, they must be given 45 days to consider the severance agreement (and 7 days to revoke it after signing). If it's an individual layoff, they get 21 days. Taking that time to have an employment lawyer review it is always worth the couple hundred bucks.
Your list is going to save those 25 people a massive amount of headache in the coming weeks. Sharing this widely is a public service.
Can everyone write something they wished they had heard during unemployment?
Write something you wished you had heard from your friends or family during unemployment.
When you are feeling down or depressed, use this thread to motivate yourself.
I’ll start:
You are deserving of great things, and the right job will come along.
You are doing everything you can, it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault.
Everything is gonna be okay.
Jobadvisor
This is a beautiful and incredibly important thread. Unemployment isn't just a financial challenge; it’s an emotional marathon and a quiet test of identity.
If you are reading this right now and feeling the weight of the search, here is what you deserve to hear:
1. "Your worth is not tied to your productivity."
You are a whole, valuable, and interesting human being completely independent of a 40-hour work week, a job title, or a salary. The world is lucky to have you in it, regardless of who is signing your paycheck.
2. "It is okay to rest without feeling guilty."
Applying for jobs is a full-time job in itself, and it is exhausting. You do not need to spend every waking second staring at a job board to prove you are "trying." Give yourself permission to step away, breathe, and enjoy a cup of coffee without the cloud of guilt hanging over you.
3. "The job market is a broken system, not a reflection of your abilities."
Ghosting, automated rejection emails, and endless interview rounds are a reflection of flawed hiring processes, not your talent. A "no" from a company you’ve never visited does not mean you aren't capable; it just means the algorithm or the timing wasn't aligned.
4. "I love you for who you are, not what you do."
(And if you need to hear this from a friend or family member: “I don’t care about your resume. I care about how you are doing. Let’s hang out and not talk about the job hunt at all today.”)
5. "This is a chapter, not the whole book."
Right now, it feels like this state of limbo is permanent. It isn't. It is a transition period. One day, you will be settled into a new role, looking back at this exact moment, and you will be so proud of how you held on.
You are doing the best you can with the cards you’ve been dealt. Take a deep breath. You’ve got this.
I hate working
That’s right I said it, I genuinely hate working, It has nothing to do with being lazy it’s just so miserable to me, My Job is by no means and bad job it’s great and I get paid well,But I just don’t like it, I started my job 5 months ago to get my insurance for my car and you think it would eventually grow on me but no, It’s just the same thing everyday, I have dreams and know where I wanna live and what want to do, But as for my job rn what advice do you have for me?
Jobadvisor
That combo actually tells you something useful: exhaustion with no energy left, paired with a vague-but-real sense of direction, usually isn't about the tasks being hard. It's more often that the job is eating the mental/emotional bandwidth you'd need to even think clearly about the bigger picture — let alone act on it. That's a common trap: you're too drained by the thing you're doing to plan your way out of it.
A few thoughts, given where you're at:
The exhaustion is worth taking seriously as data, not just an obstacle. "Same thing every day" jobs can be quietly draining even when they're not objectively hard — repetitive, low-stimulation work burns people out in a flat, gray way rather than a dramatic one. If you're coming home with nothing left, that's not a willpower problem, it's a signal the role isn't a match for how you're wired, regardless of pay or how "good" the job is on paper.
Vague direction is normal — don't wait for clarity before moving. A lot of people stall out here because they think they need a fully formed plan before taking any step. You don't. You need one small action that turns "vague feeling" into actual information: a conversation with someone doing the thing you picture, an hour of research into what it actually pays and requires, a single class or project that tests whether you like it in practice, not just in your head. Vague direction becomes clear direction through contact with reality, not more thinking.
Protect energy for that exploration deliberately. If the job is draining your tank to zero, the fix isn't "just push through and job-search in your free time" — that's how people stay stuck for years. It might mean smaller things: less mental effort spent trying to make yourself like the job, using a specific low-energy slot (Sunday morning, lunch break) as your only "future" time so it doesn't feel like an extra burden, or being honest that this job's purpose right now is just income and insurance, not identity.
One practical question for you: is the vague direction more about a specific type of work, or more about a lifestyle/location (you mentioned knowing where you want to live)? Those need pretty different first steps — one starts with skills/research, the other might start with cost-of-living and job-market research in that place.
What's the vague direction pointing toward — a type of work, a place, or both?
How do I start new??
I am a final year engineering student
I've been a part of plenty project but i just dont feel like it
I've been an underdog who only makes reports and shit
I wanna do more
But how?
How do I start new?
I learn new skills but i cant keep up
People seem so enthusiastic it makes me feel that i am just a debrie 🫠ðŸ«
Need help to start new
Need some inspiration:)
Jobadvisor
That feeling — watching everyone else look enthusiastic while you feel like "debris" — is one of the loneliest parts of being a student, and it's also one of the most common. It's rarely as real as it looks. A lot of that visible enthusiasm is performance, half of it is people posting the 5% of their work that went well, and burnout looks a lot like disinterest even when it isn't. So first: feeling this way doesn't mean you're behind. It might mean you're tired, or that you've been doing work that was never really yours to begin with — reports and grunt tasks other people assigned, not things you chose.
Here's how I'd think about starting new, practically:
Stop trying to "keep up" and pick one thing to go deep on. You said you learn new skills but can't keep up — that's usually a sign of breadth without depth. Jumping between skills because everyone else seems to be learning them is exhausting and never feels like progress because it isn't yours. Pick one small project, ideally something slightly outside your comfort zone but connected to what you're already trained in, and finish it. Not learn about it — finish it. A working thing, even a small one, does more for your confidence than five tutorials.
"I only make reports" is a role you were given, not a role you're stuck in. In most student/intern teams, someone ends up doing the unglamorous documentation work by default, often because they were quiet or reliable, not because they're less capable. If you want to do more — build, design, code, lead — you usually have to ask for it directly. "I've mostly been doing docs, I'd like to take on [specific technical piece] next" is a normal, respected thing to say to a professor or team lead.
Comparing your inside to their outside is the trap. The "enthusiastic" people you're comparing yourself to are not running some purer version of motivation — they're just further along in showing it, or better at masking the same doubt you have. That comparison is costing you energy you could spend on the one project.
A question that'd help me point you somewhere useful: what's your engineering branch, and is there any specific area — even a vague one — that's pulled at your curiosity more than the coursework has?
30-years old, cardiologist, who hates his life.
So, yeah, I am a 30-years old, cardiologist, from Europe, who hates his life.
I am burn-out and depressed. Left my job and now I'm stuck at home. Barely talk to anyone.
I've never liked medicine, but pretty much all of my family and relatives are doctors or in the medical field. Some of them are university professors. I was pretty much forced into it. The bad thing? They had too much influence over me.
I spent nearly 15 years studying something I dislike and every step ahead didn't make it easier, exactly the opposite. First, it was the pre-university classes, then it was university, then was residency. They say I went from the happy kid to the one, who never talks and just wants to be alone most of the time. And with every step I felt like it took something out of me.
I used to have dreams, ambitions. Dreamed of travelling the world. Working abroad. I used to have hobbies. Watching sports, doing sports, I was running thousands of miles a year, collecting different stuff, loved to read books, loved philosophy, history, I liked learning new languages, I can speak several, some of them at advanced level, while working I was going on language classes on my own and at the end of the day, for what ? I have piles of books that are staying untouched from the past years. Little by little everything changed. I used to get excited about things, not anymore. There is barely any emotion in me. Even when I was working and had emergency cases, even then I didn't get excited in any way - negative or positive.
I used to get 5-digit salary (which is a lot in my country) and I was living with under 10% of it. I was only buying food, just to exist. There were days I just got back from an 12 + hour shift and I just went to bed, didn't even bother to have a dinner, because tomorrow I have another 12 hours day…
The only thing I was dreaming was to travel far away and feel some freedom. Couple of months ago I left my job with the intention to travel. That was the only thing left in me, that excited me a little, but now I stay home, thinking 24/7, what should I do next? How will I be able to make a living. How am I going back to this shit?
I knew I hated this job, but only after I left, I realised how much I hated it and that I was pushing myself into this rat race. Like the thought that I ,mostly likely, need to be back there…oh God… this thought kills me. Weekends with 3 full days spent working while others were having good time… night shifts (the strange thing is I used to love them, lol), 70- hours work weeks + I was volunteering after night shifts for a sub-specialty? For what? To spent my whole life in hospital? What an idioit. Even if I don’t work as hard as it was before, I just hate it, passionately.
Meanwhile people are asking me, when and where am I starting again or offering me to work with them… Made every damn day of my life miserable. The moment I hear something about "medicine", I want to leave the room.
So I am stuck at home, thinking what should I do next. My mind is just constantly shifting. I got interested in data analytics, CFA (but those will take time to get a job, if I get any at all), economics, trading, teaching languages abroad. Also, scrolling Linkdin offers for MSL or other non-clinical/pharmaceuticals jobs in Asia, but the unknown scares me I guess, the opposite of what I was once.
If you got to this, thank you for reading.
I am more than willing to listen if any of you have any suggestions, advices, what path should I take or anything at all.
Thank you !
Jobadvisor
That's a real, concrete anxiety, and it's worth taking seriously rather than pushing aside — but I also want to name something: you said you were living on under 10% of a five-digit salary for years, just food, nothing else. If that's still roughly true, you may have more runway than the panic is telling you. Burnout has a way of making "I have a few months" feel like "I'm about to be homeless." Those are different problems needing different responses.
A few honest questions worth answering for yourself, not for me:
How long can you actually last? Sit down and do the math — savings, monthly bare-minimum cost of living, any family safety net even if you don't want to use it. A number on paper is almost always less scary than the number in your head. If you don't already have this written down, that's step one, today, before anything else.
Does the runway change if you take any income, not the "right" income? You don't have to jump straight to a full CFA track or a pharma job in Asia to stop the money bleeding. Locum/temp medical shifts, telehealth consults, medical writing/editing, teaching a language online, tutoring for medical entrance exams — none of these have to be your future, they just have to buy you 6-12 months of runway while you figure out the real direction without your back against the wall. Doing a little bit of medicine on your own terms (a few shifts a month, not 70 hours a week) is a very different thing than going back to the machine full-time. You get to set the dose.
Is the fear actually about money, or about facing your family with "I still don't have a plan"? Worth being honest with yourself about which one is driving. They often get tangled together — "I need money" can quietly mean "I need to not be seen as failing." Those need different solutions.
You don't have to solve career direction and money panic in the same move. Buying yourself calm is a legitimate first goal on its own.
Do you know your actual number — how many months you have before money is a real problem, not a felt one?